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Branding is definitely the wrong concept for Zalemark.
Since the inception of Zalemark and Steven Zales other companies that closed down or went bankrupt, they have never had a profitable year. If they have shown profits those profits did not come from sales. They came from miscalculations on the unaudited financial statements...this is called "cooking the books". Please read the past financial statements and you can see this for yourselves.
No one will walk into any retailer and ask to see the M&M jewelry collection. It would need to be heavily promoted to garner that type of response. Promotion costs money (not stock) and Zalemark doesn't have the bucks. Instead of spending huge amounts of money (actually millions of dollars lost) to acquire licenses, Zalemark would have been better off creating fine diamond jewelry that was better and more uniquely designed. Other jewelry companies have taken this approach and have done extremely well. David Yurman as an example. He started out selling at craft shows and has built a brand name himself. All these years in business and Steven Zale has proved only one thing: his abilility to create business losses. His branding concept will never come to fruition because Zale himself is the companies worst enemy. The "longs" should stop looking ahead and instead focus on the destruction that Steven Zale has left behind him. Stop the wishful thinking projections...it ain't gonna happen.
Reading through some older posts. Same thoughts as-today.
From Post #310. November 01, 2013
"Just a lot of promises that never happen. They appear to state a lot of smoke and mirrors that NEVER happen."
From Post #309.
"Facts are facts. In the past it has been a loser and appears they are well trained in being a loser in the future. The investors seem to be losing respect in the company for the future. I know I am, all spin with no positive closure."
And the price two years ago was in the $0.15 to $0.20 range.
Ten times more value than today.
Loyalists have-been laughing for-months while Zalemark PPS declines. It may be a laugh to the Zaleombies
but other investors are hurting.
Some are waiting for a "catalyst" to push this stock to the nines and tens...it just won't happen. Many catalysts have appeared but the loyalists only want wishful thinking positive news. The catalysts that appeared are as follows:
No shipping of Crayola jewelry.
Continued huge losses.
No future major department store sales.
No new investor funds buying stock from Zalemark.
Old investors and sweat equity employees are fed up with promises that don't happen and shares of stock that continues to slide downward.
The discovery that Zalemark has ceased to do business in California. They surrendered that right to the California Secretary of State.
Thes are your catalysts but just not the ones you were hoping for.
Longterm investors will dump their holdings prior-to year-end. They have waited too long in the hopes that Zalemark will achieve any success. No Sales = No Profits = No Confidence.
They will do this to take a tax loss. If they want to buy back in after the new year they will. And probably the PPS will be cheaper. But in reality why would an investor do that? This stock is "barking".
50,000 shares traded at $0.0131. 188 at $.0185. The reality is that the PPS shows way more sellers than buyers. Without the desperate trader purchasing 188 shares three times today, this stock would be at $0.013 or below. And it has to go lower with Zalemark diluting the PPS with debt conversion and issuing stock for services rendered. That is why Zalemark doubled the A/S...to Steven Zale it's like he is printing his own money while the stockholders value declines.
"Ask" has dropped. 888 can't drive-up the PPS.
The bid and ask have tightened up. More shares to sell than buy. Investors who believed in Steven Zale have been waiting so long that they are now giving up. A perfect time for the loyal and faithful Zaleombie followers to buy in big do they can continue price averaging on the way down.
But it really is a sad time (with Thanksgiving and Christmas just ahead) for the legitimate "sweat equity" people that have stupidly believed in their Pied Piper. And it's even worse for the investors that purchased their stock directly from Zalemark. I really wonder what they were told and by whom. I would think they would have some legal standing in filing a lawsuit against the people that persuaded them to purchase this stock. And also bad for the million dollar investors like Warren Nobusada who bought what Steven Zale was selling. Zale has gone through millions and millions of their dollars with no chance of ever recouping a dime. Crayola didn't happen as planned. M&M''s won't happen. There is just no talent on the Zalemark team to pull it off. Which includes design, sales & marketing along with the internal infrastructure to cohesively tie it all together. Instead of wasting all these years on branding, which takes up so much time and effort along with getting the brand to approve the product, packaging and other nuances, Zalemark could have hired a top jewelry designer to create their own brand. Steven Zale didn't do it and can't do it. This company is severely wounded and is bleeding profusely. It needs a huge infusion of capital and a complete ground up restoration. It won't happen.
Speak to Ernest again. Ask him the following:
Why has there been no announcement regarding the delay?
Did any major retailers purchase significant quantiles of Crayola jewelry?
Zalemark had projected an absurd revenue of $58 million for this fiscal year. And net after tax profits of an even more absurd $24 million. With he be revising those projections.
Ask Ernest if they have to make a payment to JTV to settle the lawsuit?
Ask Ernest why they filed to surrender the right to do business in Cslifornia.
Ask Ernest if they have any Valentines day orders from any major retailer?
Ask Ernest why they used the old accountant to prepare the quarterly statement when they supposedly have hired a stock exchange approved auditing accounting firm?
Start with these questions please.
Oh...one last question for Ernest; have they discussed bankruptcy as an option.
Crayola was delayed because no retailers made purchases.
Pure and simple. The collection failed. Remember the "launch party" at the jewelry show in Las Vegas in June. No pictures from the party. No write ups in the jewelry trade magazines. The jewelry collection was a failure. The product was not compelling enough for any major retailer to give it case space. You just don't get that the silence from Steven Zale is very telling. When you state "they don't deny that"; is the "they" Zalemark? They haven't said what happened so they haven't denied or confirmed anything. Steven Zale is trying to figure out what BS to say to his faithful foolish followers to keep them on the hook. It's really simple. The collection didn't sell because it has no appeal. It's not fresh, it's not innovative and it's just "who cares" jewelry. Collections fail for a multitude of reasons but good companies don't throw all their eggs in one basket. Yes, they have M&M's but that isn't enough (even if the product was drop dead gorgeous), Zalemark doesn't have the infrastructure to place significant amounts of product on retailers shelves. It's really over. They blew the only chance they had for survival. Now we will watch it die.
Did "888" run out of money. His 188 share purchase to "drive up" the PPS was under $4.00. But unless he is taking his late afternoon nap I suspect we shall see him push the close back up to $0.0182.
And still continued SILENCE from felon Steven Zale.
This fiscal year will be a disaster. And Zalemark will be gone by next fiscal year. Zalemark had one opportunity to show the naysayer truth tellers that we were wrong. Not shipping Crayola jewelry to ANY major retailer is the kiss of death going forward. This was their chance to gain inroads into the major department store retail market. Now for Spring 2016 it will be small consignment test orders (that I personally don't think they will get).
No Sales = No Profits = Huge Losses (Again) = Game Over.
Old saying: Fish stink from the head down.
If this company wants to continue doing business then you need to get rid of everybody EXCEPT anyone with lots of money. You have to clean the slate. There are no smart jewelry people running or advising this company. That includes Steven Zale and his trusty side kicks Ray Ruiz and Ernest Martel. You don't want yes men or women working there. Warren Nobusada can stay as he has money and "cahones" (not sure of the spelling). But you can't attract great people with sweat equity stock, and these people don't come cheap. You have to entice someone with a huge salary...$200,000 to $600,000 plus stock and stock options. A well connected CEO for $400,000, a designer for $200,000 and a top sales person that has the connections to all or at least most of the major retailers. That person will cost you half a million dollars plus a percentage of sales. All these people must be jewelry veterans with major jewelry contacts and are working now and earning serious bucks. If you do this then there will be some credibility for stockholders to believe in. At least that way you may be able to get a real bank to finance the receivables. You have to run this company like a real business. Fully transparent with audited financial statements from a "trusted" brand name accounting firm.
Under $1,000 in sales for three months. EMBARRASSING!!! Especially for Steven Zale. And more embarrassing for his old investors that keep thinking he will get their investment dollars back.
The whole Zalemark team should resign immediately and clear out their desks. Oops...they have no desks. Maybe that is why they have no sales.
No desks = No Sales = No Profits.
And to think some naive "longs" state this company is not a scam.
And still no word from the "icronic" jewelry designer Steven Zale (that hasn't sold any of his jewelry anywhere...sure can't find it in retail stores) about how his branding concept with Crayola is a HUGE flop this year. There is no excuse for any delays. Kick the bum out. Close the company down. Shut and lock the mailbox door on your way out. No need to turn off the lights...you know what I mean.
CODE BLUE: ZMRK is dying. Revival impossible.
OH WOW: 200 share trade. Showing tremendous confidence.
PPS drops but the 888 share buyer will come in and spend his or her weekly lunch and dinner money (under $20) to slap the ask again to "spike" the PPS.
First glance Zalemark financials worse than I thought, still no JTV lawsuit mentioned and they are still using the same old horrible accounting firm. I can't believe Ernest Martel and Caren Currier signed these documents.
One thing I saw immediately was that there was no new purchases of stock made directly with Zalemark. Which means no new funds coming in from naive investors.
Just stock traded for debt conversion and services rendered.
More details to follow.
The Q is out. Printing first, commenting next.
Hopefully we see the new Q today.
And not a delayed notification notice.
This is the most important financial statement that Zalemark has ever released. If ZMRK continues with BS numbers or doesn't address the JTV lawsuit then they will have lost all credabilility in sophisticated investors eyes.
"Crayola Jewelry For Sale" is a better sign.
investors would like to see that "sign" in a store...any store.
Audits and uplisting don't mean anything when you haven't sold any jewelry.
No sales = No profits = a "Going Out Of Business" sign.
"Crayola Jewelry For Sale" is a better sign.
investors would like to see that "sign" in a store...any store.
Audits and uplisting don't mean anything when you haven't sold any jewelry.
No sales = No profits = a "Going Out Of Business" sign.
"Longs" have been looking forward to "next week" for MONTHS now.
"Good new is coming soon" just never seems to materialize. If a catalyst comes it will be detrimental to the PPS as Zalemark has no good news to tell us.
No Christmas delivery of Crayola jewelry to any major department stores. And no real business for 2016 shipping as well.
A DISASTROUS financial statement being released within days. Or possibly a delayed release date.
Increased losses.
Having no funds to make the JTV financial settlement which is due in early December.
Zalemark can't ship jewelry from California as they would be breaking California State laws.
All major investors were counting on this being the year to get them back to even or at least cut down on their losses.
The "sweat equity" employees were also counting on the stock price going up tremendously as they keep getting more shares that are depreciating rapidly.
The "Debt Conversion" recipients who took stock were also counting on a higher PPS. How much longer can they hold on. They received pretty much worthless stock. And the shares trading daily has declined as well.
Why spend time, effort and funds on an audit or trying to get uplisted when there are no sales. The branded concept is not a good idea. It only locks you in to making upfront payments and then quarterly payments as well whether you sell any jewelry or not.
ISSUANCE HISTORY: Shares issued in the last Q. In the quarterly and annual reports Zalemark has to reveal how many shares of stock they issued for the following categories:
Debt Conversion
Services Rendered
Purchase
Debt conversion; If Zalemark owed money for loans that were about to become due, or for payments to suppliers, and they didn't have the funds to pay them, Zalemark converted the debt by issuing shares of stock at an agreed upon price per share. The price per share has declined appreciably from the price they received.
Services rendered; these shares of stock were issued in lieu of financial payments to employees, accountants, lawyers, companies that Zalemark used to hype their stock, the licensing person that introduced Zalemark to potential licensors and others. Again, the pps has declined dramatically.
Purchase; these people or in some cases, trusts, actually gave Zalemark money. I am not sure how or why they decided to do this. Who told them that this was a good investment? Did the person that got them to invest in Zalemark get paid in cash or stock? This area bothers me the most as the prices they paid in most cases have severely declined in value. The interesting thing that I noticed in reading over past financial statements is the lack of any insurance payments that would cover officers and directors in case of their being sued over these investments. This could be a huge personal liability against the officers and directors.
I hope that the new Q, which should be coming out in a few days, doesn't have new purchases by these naive investors.
You can see this listing when you click on the quarterly statement and then click on "download report".
Why Zalemark can't survive. #3
No financial or factory infrastructure to support any significant sales. Major stores need advertising and promotion money. The initial orders will only be small test orders sold on consignment. The merchandise that sells will be paid for. The rest will be returned. Depending on the rate of return and the companies financial strength this can put a company out of business. A new product needs exposure to consumers through multi channels. This entails an advertising campaign that will cost an incredible amount of money (not stock). You can't just place Crayola jewelry in a showcase and expect it to sell on its own. The product needs to be promoted. Zalemark doesn't have the funds (even if they received their million dollars from Kodiak) to do that.
In addition to the financial infrastructure Zalemark doesn't have the internal systems in place to ship, bill and collect funds as this is usually done by by a third party provider who acts as the middleman between your computer system and the major department stores computer. These systems need an in house expert to coordinate and facilitate all the documentation that needs to be done when serving major retailers.
Zalemark does not have the funds to hire that person. They wouldn't work for stock either.
Why Zalemark can't survive. #2
Non sufficient funding. You can't run a business and compete on a high level without "talent". And talent needs to be paid a handsome sum of money. Talent comes in many forms:
DESIGN TALENT; Zalemark doesn't have it. If their designs were saleable you would find them in stores. Recent yearly revenue has been virtually non existent. Design talent costs money...not stock.
SALES TALENT; Zalemark has no major store sales or connections to the buyers to help facilitate sales. Sales talent is vital to the success of any business. No sales...no existence. Sales talent costs money...not stock.
FINANCING TALENT; this is one area that really surprises me as Zalemark continues to get investors to purchase shares directly from the company. But if you read and understand their financial statements you will see how misleading and in my opinion fraudulent these statements are. I give applause to Zalemark for getting investors to give them cash for what I feel is worthless stock. But I take away points from their CFO for signing off on the financial statements. I think the investor money will have to dry up with all the current knowledge that has come out. I am anxious to see the new Q to see if their new accounting firm prepared them or if it was done by their old account.
With no sales and no money, Zalemark can't survive.
Why Zalemark can't survive. #1
Zalemark is led by Steven Zale. He is a convicted felon that was arrested for embezzlement in addition to dealing cocaine. This has only come to be known in August of this year. Many are going to say that this is old news, which it is, but now that it has surfaced, major retailers and licensors have so many other options that they don't need or want to be associated with a criminal. It just doesn't enhance their brands. This information will now always follow Steven Zale and Zalemark.
Instead of Zalemark responding we get others stating what they want to hear. Wouldn't we all like Steven Zale to come forward and send out a PR that explains all the evidence that has been revealed here:
The JTV lawsuit.
Surrendering the right to do business in California.
The cocaine and embezzlement arrests.
The non delivery of Crayola jewelry this year.
Are there revised projections on the sales and profits for 2015?
Are there any shipments scheduled to go to any major department stores for next year?
Start with these questions. Answer them Mr. Zale to show us how transparent you really are.
Zalemark has had plenty of time to respond. They choose to be silent...which speaks volumes.
Zalemark is a 100% reject. Only HUGE losses on this scam stock. DD is reading the financial statements, seeing if promises or projections have come to fruition. It's Zero, Nada, Nothing!!! You can't rely on the convicted felon to tell the truth.
Zalemark's past performance is indicative of their future.
No sales to any major department store with Crayola. In fact you can't find any Zalemark jewelry in ANY stores anywhere.
Show me something tangible NOW, not wishful thinking into the future.
The Crayola jewelry line is a melt down.
Not one major department store bought into the concept.
No sales = No profits = HUGE losses again.
The thread Steven Zale is hanging onto is stretched so thin it's breaking.
No major retail shipments this year and next year for at least the first six months of 2016.
It's just excuse after excuse from uninformed hypsters. How come Zalemark hasn't explained why they missed the Crayola launch in the third quarter of this year? Don't show me pictures of displays and jewelry. Show investors hard orders from any major department store. Not shipping any Crayola product for Christmas will significantly have a negative impact on Zalemark's business for the first six months of 2016. They lost close to $3.7 million dollars last year. Read the financial statements. This year is going to be another major disaster.
Naive investors holding: smart investors are not buying.
No statement from Zalemark regarding the Crayola launch.
One would think that if there was a legitimate reason why they couldn't meet the third quarter launch projections then they would let investors know what that reason was.
My conjecture is that no major retailer thought Crayola jewelry had any merit. There was just no compelling reason why they should carry the jewelry. They would need a tremendous amount of advertising dollars to promote a new collection and Zalemark doesn't have those funds. No retailer wants to be stuck with unsalable merchandise. If they made a wrong choice and the consumer didn't respond well to the product then they would want the vendor to trade them out, give them mark down money or just take back the merchandise with the hopes of getting future orders. If they thought the company had financial issues they wouldn't get started with them in the first place. I think that is what happened here.
Steven Zale has neither substance or integrity. Zalemark is a disaster. The non delivery can't be explained as a simple delay. No Crayola Christmas delivery will have a disastrous effect on 2016 sales as there will be no "forward positive motion" from January through June. They will have missed important selling periods where the major stores would have given them big orders for Valentines Day and Mothers Day. Now if they get any orders at all they will be small consignment test orders. Steven Zale has his focus on selling stock and not jewelry.
Convicted felon Steven Zale, arrested for EMBEZZLEMENT and DEALING COCAINE has no credibility. That is why he is distancing himself from Zalemark.
There are no sales, there will be no profits, the pps will drop because of dilution. Steven Zale has produced another failure.
Crayola told me to contact Zalemark regarding stores and delivery dates. As I have stated they told me it hadn't been settled.
Crayola has NOT "partnered": it's just a license they gave Zalemark to produce jewelry and Crayola would get a royalty on sales. But even with no sales Zalemark has to still pay a minimum royalty quarterly. "Partnered" is just the word Crayola uses to mean "license". I verified that with Crayola.
I have contacted Crayola. They told me they didn't know if or when the Zalemark jewelry would be in ANY stores, as that hadn't been settled yet.
Zalemark can't deliver on inflated promises and PR.